The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1887-10-21

&. l.. Jones, OF JOhnstOWn., prScilcal
driller of I6 years experience, has given 10
the Democrat. of that place, an interesting
letter received by him from j. p. Lesley,
State GeoIogist, on the subject of oil end
gas 1t contains so much information, and
so many good suggestions, that the letter
is reproduced at length:
DEAR SIR: II is my official duty 70 fur
nish any geological knowledge have freely
10 any citizen OF Pennsylvania. and l am al
ways pleased to do it. But, there are points
OF geological .tact mot Principles) concealed
from Us all; and you are aware that the
actual eJisteHce Of petroleum and gas under
any given farm or township is one of them.
In the disturbed country east of the Allie
ghenies no experienced geOiOgist will hesi-
tate 10 affirm as certain that none will ever
be found Bot in the undistuTbed region
west OF the Allegheny mountains a Geolog-
ist would act rashly TO express any such
confident opinion. There may be places in
the counties you mention (SOmeTset and
Cambria) where oil and gas exist but, as
yet, we have not the slightest evidence of
the fact-I mean the fact Of their existence
IN am such quantities as trOuld paV FOR boring
for them AS a geologist | should not risk
my money in boring for them. On the
other hand, / should be very glad-and l
should encourage rich men, OF companies
1riu, surplus of money, to bore very deep
wells in those counties. for the sake of OBJ
tanning information. Ii / were Napole-
onic dictator of Pennsylvania / should
spend sereraE million dollars of the States
revenue in systematic boring al along the
3
! large useful kHOi1ledge. But l should dis
| courage with all my might individuals of
! small means from boring at all in them, ex-
! cept for coal beds. And for this purpose
should adyise them to club together in
/ ''bOring associations TO bore along the en-
J tire lines of the sub-5asins, i. e. along the
| SyHcliyol lines especially for the coal bed
1 next above the COnglOmeTate. I think a
( line OF holes mile apart, fer fifty miles,
! would be one of the most practically useftu
things that the people Of those counties
| could undertake.
In Cambria county. for example, such g
line Of bore holes, properly watched, meas
uTed and sampled by expert GeOlOgist ap
pointed 10 do this while the tools were goinl
down, would lay a solid foundation for th,
have the highest value. Experience ha
proved that the welluorers, who work b,
contract, and therefore hurry down the Dor
hole as fast as they can. and paw little or n
regard TO anything they pass through unit
they have nearly reached the required depth
are not to be expected to furnish any usefU
practical Information to the public The
are not to be blamed for this, for they hav
their living 10 get and their families TO sup
port, and they cannot afford 20 lose the
time and money in constant measurement.
sampliugs, and careful records of all tn
strata they pass through. This must I
done by somebody else who is especial
paid for this particular duty.
Uutil large number of borings are done
his fashion. our geology will remain ver
uncertain and OBSCURE, in spite OF L
amount Of expensive prospecting which
done all the time along the outcrops.
Two wells Cfor example) at Dawson
mil Cambria milIs) miles I W. of CALI
ziE, were bored for oil twenty-fOur yea
ago, nearly along the centre line of the fir
sub-Oasln and are said to have struck Coz
of them) 7-fOOt coal bed, Ccoal A som,
where between 800 and 400 feet down: b.
no records exist OF either of the well
) although one went down 500 feet and W
, abandoned. Had proper record of the'
two wells been taken they would be emo
} mOusly valuable for settling the number al
the character of the Goals between the Coz
glOmerate and Mahoning Cthe CleaTfie
; coal measures), which have been gross
! misrepresented by the prospectors along Il
4 IN Qr up unt In hnl
wells; but then, 92O feet would not reaC
the Venango oil sands, at this point, u,
anything ike reach them; for they mu
lie at depth beneath Cambria mills of
; least 3 600 feet and perhaps as much as !
, 500 feet; owing to the thickening Of forms
, tioDs of NJ, Y and X (under the Cor
glomeTate) going east. The CongIomerat'
at the bottom of X which seem to represeI
( the VenangO oil sands, lie in Huntingdc
= county (Brnad Top) more than 6OOO fe
= beneath the Mahoning sandstone of Can
D bria county.
Your opinion that oil and gas will not |
found in the first bituminous coal basin baC
I OF the Allegheny Mountains in Clearfel
, Cambria and Somerset is a sound one
. because even if the oil sands exist ther
l they probably do not hold oil. aud YeI
2 little, if any gas; and especially becau!
they lie certainly more than twice, probab
three times, as far down In the series,
they do In the oil regions proper.
The same is true CtO less extent) in Il
second (Ligonier) basin in Clesrfield. Ind
ana, Westmoreland and Fayette. In th
basin they lie at least twice as deep as in n
OIL regions. that is, twice as far beneath Il
| FeuiferOus limestone, or rather, beneath II
= COnglomerate, for the Ferriferous limestor
was not deposited southeast of Indian
county. Yours respectfully,
j. Z. LESLEY.